Monday, August 13, 2012

The Closer Spins Off Major Crimes



Tonight The Closer will end a successful seven year run and spin off a new series, called Major Crimes. When spin offs work well, they can be fabulous - delivering a new show to an audience who is already predisposed to The art of a spinning off a show is to retain elements that made the first show great while making it fresh enough to leave room for new story telling, like when Happy Days spun off Laverne and Shirley.  Major Crimes is a bit unusual in that it is retaining most of the original cast (only Kyra Sedgwick, J.K Simmons and Corey Reynolds are leaving.) Most spin offs feature a character or two leaving to go to a new place (Private Practice), start a new show with a familiar format (Law and Order, CSI, NCIS), or a a character or two crosses over to introduce a new, but similar show (JAG to NCIS, Happy Days to Laverne and Shirley).

What will I be looking for in Major Crimes? I like the strong female investigative lead - true in both The Closer and Major Crimes.  I like the whole squad - Flynn & Provenza's antics, Sanchez's hard line, and Taylor's evolution.  There's room to run as the squad hasn't warmed up to Captain Sharon Raydor as Brenda and most of the audience has. Raydor is vastly different than Brenda - Raydor thinks rules are important. Brenda gets around them if they stand between her and a confession.  TNT says Major Crimes will focus more on the art of the deal rather than closing cases. 





Even after seven years, I have not gotten bored with The Closer and I hope Major Crimes is just as good. The first minute of the first episode of Major Crimes is below.  Already you can tell it has a very different vibe than The Closer





If you want to get caught up on The Closer before tonight, you can read the recaps for the first five episodes of this season here:

Armed Response

Last Rites

Drug Fiend

Fool's Gold

Hostile Witness

You can also watch full episodes at TNT.com.





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